Public Schools

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (15:11): My question is to the Minister for Education. Can the minister please update the house on the preparation for new schools being opened in 2022?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:11): I thank the member for Finniss for this question because it is a great opportunity to talk about some very exciting developments in four particular areas of South Australia where new schools will be opening in 2022.

Of course, the member for Finniss is aware that the most recent addition to the group of areas that will be receiving a new public school in 2022 is his own, as the people of Goolwa from term 1, 2022 will for the first time have a public high school offering within that town and its surrounding area, an area servicing 7½ thousand residents, far and away the largest town and community in South Australia without a local high school offering.

The people of Goolwa previously had a private school with an R-12 campus offering a certain service. That school has relocated all of its service to the Victor Harbor campus that it operates, providing the taxpayers of South Australia with a unique opportunity to obtain a piece of land with many of the facilities that we would need to provide a new school. Therefore, for $10 million now committed in the budget by the Marshall Liberal government—up to $10 million—we will refit that school to make it disability compliant. We will be widening doors, we will be enhancing electrical, we will be making sure everything is up to code.

It will be a new high school supporting, we anticipate, 400 students when it is fully open from 7 to 12. It is possible that it may grow because, of course, we know that Goolwa is a growing area. The mayor of Goolwa and the CE, who were there on the weekend and were absolutely thrilled to hear the announcement, informed me that there could be as many as 10,000 residents in that area going forward.

At the moment, those families have their children on buses for up to three hours a day, depending on where they are in the area, going to Victor Harbor or Strathalbyn or Mount Compass to go to school. Indeed, one of the absolutely heartbreaking things the mayor instilled in me was that when children turn 12 or 13 in Goolwa they learn that they have to leave town to do anything. That will no longer be the case.

So the member for Finniss should be congratulated, the mayor should be congratulated and the member for Mayo indeed should be congratulated. I spoke to her before the announcement, and she was advocating for it, and she has certainly welcomed this announcement as well. We look forward to further details being available there.

The other three schools that are being built—$360 million plus—to deliver new schools as a taxpayers' investment, which the Marshall Liberal government made decisions about to ensure they went ahead after the March 2018 election, were in Angle Vale, Aldinga and Whyalla. These are important investments by the taxpayers of South Australia, which the Marshall Liberal government is overseeing and will deliver. Those schools will service their communities well, the growing communities in Angle Vale and Aldinga in particular, and in Whyalla.

The member for Giles and I spoke about this a number times after the March 2018 election. As he put to me, the very significant importance for that community of seeing the old concept of two junior high schools and one senior high school, which doesn't work adequately for the people in his area in Whyalla, is no longer going to be the case. Instead, there will be one school servicing the town and we are very pleased to advise that Alison Colbeck, who has been the principal of Willunga Primary School for the last five years, will lead the new Aldinga B-12 School. She is very well known to the member for Mawson.

Joe Priolo, who has been the principal of Salisbury East High School and is very well known to the member for King, will lead the new Angle Vale B-12 School. Tricia Richman, who is currently the principal of Edward John Eyre High School and was previously at Whyalla High School and is very well known to the member for Giles, will lead the new Whyalla school. These three principals will do an outstanding job for these communities and we can't wait to see the work they do in the next year and a half to get those schools ready to go and to service the needs of their community.